The recent growth in interest in digital photography and digital imaging has been fuelled by the dropping costs of digital cameras and flatbed scanners. However, one capability that still cannot be duplicated by these cheap consumer goods is the ability to create three dimensional (3D) models of objects.
As is currently known, 3D scanners can only measure one view of an object at a time. To completely reconstruct an object, multiple images must be acquired from different orientations. One option for combining these views is the use of complex and expensive optical or mechanical equipment to track the scanning as one complete scan. Another option would be to perform separate scans and use software to digitally combine the images together. Clearly, the first option is complex, physically cumbersome, and potentially very expensive. The second option, however, requires the development of routines and methods that are both useful and, ideally, fast. These routines and methods should be easily adaptable to existing hardware such as laser scanners and data processing systems.
Another major drawback of the existing systems is their requirement that the object being scanned be fixed and stable during the scanning process. Any undesired movement or vibration will introduce distortions and errors into the range data and thereby produce erroneous results.